Opinion Joint statement,different interpretations

It must be realised that the question is not one of defeat or victory for India or Pakistan but that in view of the prevalent domestic and international ground realities,jettisoning dialogue with Pakistan is not a pragmatic option.

Art and spiritual censorship

When in London,my pilgrimage is to the Poets Corner in Westminster Abbey. Almost every major English poet is either buried or remembered in the Abbey’s Poets’ Corner. The Dean decides the admissions into the Poets’ Corner. Some moralistic deans have excluded many eminent literary personalities. Lord Byron who died in Greece was refused an Abbey burial on account of what the Dean called his ‘open profligacy—an obstacle to his commemoration’ and had to wait until 1969 for his memorial. Thomas Hardy in his 1924 poem,A Refusal,satirised the Dean and specifically requested that he should not be buried in the Abbey but near his family in Dorset. However,when Hardy died,his agent arranged a grand funeral and after much argument Hardy was buried in the Abbey—except for his heart,which was taken to Dorset in a biscuit tin and buried in the churchyard of St. Michael’s,Stinsford. Another victim of spiritual censure was George Eliot,pseudonym for May Ann Evans,for whom an Abbey memorial was initially rejected owing to her agnosticism and the fact that she lived,unmarried,with a man. DH Lawrence’s memorial appeared belatedly in 1985.

Oscar Wilde poignantly points out that,“A man cannot always be estimated by what he does. He may keep the law,and yet be worthless. He may break the law,and yet be fine…There are as many perfections as there are imperfect men.” Poor Oscar never made it to the Poets’ Corner.

Fat Tax

The world of taxation is one of irritating complexity and of infinite variety. We know and have suffered income tax,which at one time was 97 per cent,a real test for honest taxpayers. Then we have wealth tax and gift tax. Expenditure tax,a good means for controlling wasteful and vulgar expenditure on weddings and similar functions,has been regrettably abolished. Excise is all pervasive despite Dr Johnson’s condemnation that it a hateful tax on commodities. A recent entrant is service tax on legal firms.

It is not finance ministers alone who levy novel taxes. An Irish no-frills low cost carrier,Ryanair,has proposed that heavy passengers pay a “fat tax”. Surely this move is not designed to curb obesity but to augment the airlines revenues. The proposed ‘fat tax’ is replete with fatty legal problems. Who determines who is a ‘heavy’ passenger? Besides it is plainly discriminatory because some people are fat and heavy not because they consume too much but on account of glandular problems. Our Aviation Minister Praful Patel should not be tempted to impose such an obnoxious tax to bail out the beleaguered Air India.